A NEW WORLD INDUSTRY

" British Dynamite Company." The share capital of the company
was to be £24,000, divided into 2,400 shares of £10 each. 1,500
shares were to be paid for in cash, 900 shares being issued to Alfred
Nobel in consideration for his Patents. Nobel also undertook to
subscribe and pay for 300 of the 1,500 shares, whereby he controlled
one-half the share capital of the Company. Moreover, he under-
took without any payment, apart from the special expenses in-
volved, to deliver complete drawings and plans for the factory, and
to give his advice and instructions for the works, and also to place
his services at the disposal of the company as scientific director,
and to allow it to have the advantage of any future improvements
in his patents. The members of the original Board were,, besides
Nobel, John Moffat of Ardrossan, A. Galbraith, Charles Randolph
and H. A. Rennie, all of Glasgow. John Downie was appointed
General Manager. The Company imjnediately proceeded to build
a dynamite factory at Ardeer, near Ardrossan, on the West Coast of
Scotland, a spot which Nobel had himself selected, and which
offered exceptional opportunities for future developments.

The actual direction of the construction of the factory and of the
early stages of manufacture was entrusted to a friend and loyai
colleague of Nobel, the Swedish engineer Alarik Liedbeck, who had
hitherto been factory manager at Vintervicken. The building of
the factory took about two years. On the isth January, 1873,
nitro-glycerine was first produced in this factory, which afterwards
became one of the greatest nitro-glycerine factories in the world.
McRoberts, a Scotsman, was appointed factory manager, and
some years later a Swede, C. 0. Ltindholm, was appointed chief
engineer. Towards the end of the 'eighties Lundholm became the
technical manager, a position which he occupied for about twenty
years, remaining as technical adviser to the Nobel Dynamite Trust
Company for a further period of ten years.

In 1875, Nobel having made another important discovery,

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